IT’S PROPER that an independent agency will investigate month-old claims that officers with the metro police department under-reported or failed to report crimes to paint a more flattering picture of Savannah’s crime problems.

It’s too bad this process has taken so long.

The truth remains fuzzy. The longer it takes for the public to find clarity, the greater the skepticism — and the unrest among City Council members.

On Thursday, Acting City Manager Stephanie Cutter notified members of City Council that she had instructed Metro Police Chief Willie Lovett, who works for the city manager, to first pursue an outside review by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But when the GBI responded that it only investigates crimes, not internal affairs matters within departments, city officials took it to the next level — to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Although the FBI could forward its findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office here for further action, there’s apparently no question of criminal wrongdoing that merits the FBI’s involvement.

Instead, at stake is the credibility of top city officials, as well as the credibility of elected officials who oversee them. But that’s important, too.

Crime is a perennial concern here, and recent violent crimes in Savannah’s southside have again pushed it to near the top of the public’s agenda.

Each year, thousands of police departments across the nation report their crime statistics to the FBI. According to the bureau, the program’s primary objective is to generate a reliable set of criminal statistics for use in law enforcement administration and operation. At the same time, the public looks to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports for information on fluctuations in the level of crime. Hence, accuracy is important. It allows citizens to make informed decisions about public safety in their communities.

Last month, three members of City Council — Tony Thomas, Van Johnson and Mary Ellen Sprague — expressed concerns that crime in the city may be worse than what the police department’s statistics indicate. Mr. Thomas, in fact, said that he had received at least six constituent complaints that officers were refusing to write reports or respond to minor property crimes.

Ms. Cutter is responsible for getting at the bottom of this. She’s in charge of day-to-day operations under Savannah’s council-member form of government. If there’s a problem, she’s got to fix it.

After the three council members went public with their concerns, Ms. Cutter asked all nine members of the group to forward any complaints to her. She said she got 14. That’s not a huge number. However, each should be examined to see if there’s an underlying pattern, or whether concerns about fudging the crime numbers are overblown.

The acting city manager said 11 of those complaints were turned over to metro police for internal affairs for review. The other three remain under investigation.

But in one case — the theft of more than $17,500 in landscaping equipment and a trailer parked on the street — a communications breakdown may be part of the problem. The investigating officer recorded it as a larceny from a yard, as the department’s computer system didn’t allow it to be coded as a larceny from the street. Hence, the victim perceived it as being downplayed as a minor crime — even though it officially went down on the record as a felony and was reported to the FBI as such.

On Friday, Alderman John Hall labeled fellow council member Mr. Thomas “a bomb-thrower” for making his public allegations at last month’s retreat. Maybe, maybe not. It’s too early to make that determination.

At this point, it’s best to take a wait-and-see approach. Let the FBI look at the facts and make its determination. Then the public should be able to bring the city’s crime statistics into sharper focus and determine which public officials have a better grasp of the truth.

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Wait? I don't have to wait. My house has been burglarized twice in the past thirteen months. The first case cannot be found on any data base, and the police officers who answered the more recent call-- 20 minutes late-- said that they are overwhelmed and understaffed. I don't need the FBI to tell me that the books are cooked and that our police department is in a crisis. And I'm-a gonna wait right here for the report that will back me up...